Justices scrap death penalty for juveniles

Published: Wednesday, March 02, 2005

WASHINGTON (AP) - A closely divided Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty for juvenile criminals Tuesday, declaring there was a national consensus such executions were unconstitutionally cruel and ending a practice that had brought international condemnation.

The 5-4 decision, which overturns a 1989 high court ruling, throws out the death sentences of 72 murderers who committed their crimes as juveniles and bars states from seeking to execute others. Nineteen states, including Texas, had allowed death sentences for killers who committed their crimes when they were under 18. Twenty-eight juvenile murderers are on Texas' death row.

The ruling was greeted with enthusiasm by numerous death penalty opponents, here and abroad.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority, said many juveniles lack maturity and intellectual development to understand the ramifications of their actions.

"The age of 18 is the point where society draws the line for many purposes between childhood and adulthood. It is, we conclude, the age at which the line for death eligibility ought to rest," Kennedy said.

The United States has stood almost alone in the world in officially sanctioning juvenile executions, a "stark reality" that can't be ignored, Kennedy wrote. Juvenile offenders have been put to death in recent years in only a few other countries, including Iran, Pakistan, China and Saudi Arabia.

"It is proper that we acknowledge the overwhelming weight of international opinion against the juvenile death penalty, resting in large part on the understanding that the instability and emotional imbalance of young people may often be a factor in the crime," Kennedy wrote.

In an angry dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia disputed that a "national consensus" exists and said the majority opinion was based on the "flimsiest of grounds."

The appropriateness of capital punishment should be determined by individual states, not "the subjective views of five members of this court and like-minded foreigners," he wrote.

The ruling triggered cries of outrage from Texas victims' rights activists and victims' relatives, as well as renewed demands for a moratorium on the Texas death penalty - a demand Republican Gov. Rick Perry immediately refused.

But Perry asked the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to review the state's cases affected by the Supreme Court ruling.

At least two bills pending before the Legislature would prohibit the execution of violent offenders under the age of 18.

"If a bill that brings Texas law in line with the court's ruling reaches my desk I will sign it," Perry said in a prepared statement. "Regardless of what the Legislature does, however, Texas will abide by the court's ruling."

Perry told reporters he would consider signing legislation allowing sentences of life without parole for juveniles, which is now not an option for Texas juries. A life sentence in Texas means a defendant is eligible for parole in 40 years.

Rep. Garnet Coleman of Houston said it was time to end Texas executions, but Perry replied: "The answer is no."

In Prince William County, Va., officials said Tuesday they will not prosecute a murder case against teen sniper Lee Boyd Malvo, who is already serving life in prison in two of the 10 sniper killings that terrorized the Washington area in 2002.

Prince William County Commonwealth's Attorney Paul Ebert had hoped to get the death penalty for Malvo, who was 17 at the time of the killings, but he said another trial would now be an unnecessary expense.